Railex to add another shipping route
It plans to add a second weekly train from its Wallula warehouse to Rotterdam, N.Y.
By VICKI HILLHOUSE of the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
WALLULA — Washington's produce train is on track for growth.
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| Night shift crews position onions and other products outside the empty Railex box cars in preparation for Wednesday night's loading of the train. A long-awaited second train is due to begin Saturday. U-B photo by Jeff Horner |
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Railex will introduce a second weekly nonstop train to meet increasing customer demand as more farmers and shippers send their fruits and vegetables to the East Coast.
The new train, which begins Saturday, doubles capacity for the produce shipped from the Wallula warehouse to Rotterdam, N.Y., and distributed up and down the Eastern Seaboard.
"This is something we've been building toward since Day 1," said Jim Kleist, Northwest region general manager.
With the additional train will come jobs. Kleist, who oversees the Wallula operation, said the Railex facility will have about 85 full-time employees, about double the number when the 200,000-square-foot warehouse opened in October 2006.
Kleist said the second train is just the beginning of changes for the transportation operation.
This summer the company plans to start a two-day train between Washington and California before eventually launching a five-day train from California to Rotterdam.
Kleist said the new warehouse is slated for Delano, Calif.
"Our hope is that it's going to compliment what we're already doing here," he said.
For the Wallula operation, the 55-car, temperature-controlled unit trains will now leave every Thursday morning and Saturday evening, arriving in New York on Tuesday morning and Thursday evening.
Railex reportedly hauls more than 220 truckloads of perishable product — apples, onions, potatoes, pears, wine and more — each week. The trains bring back beer, juices and potatoes, among other things.
The connectivity of high-speed trains was an answer to transportation problems that vexed Northwest growers.
Increasing regulations have added costs and time to long-haul trucking. Meanwhile, the conventional rail system isn't as fast. Railex was proposed as a solution.
"The same concerns that we voiced when we opened up are still there: diesel pricing, driver shortage and the inherent pounding on the road system," he said.
He said the company is particularly proud of its reduction of carbon emissions. One unit train reportedly saves more than 5 million gallons of diesel fuel, Kleist said.
"You're moving stuff in bulk on existing rails. It's just a matter of the most efficient use of existing assets," he said.
Valoria Loveland, director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture, praised the service as a much-needed solution for transporting Northwest produce.
"I'm just really delighted," Loveland said. "This is something we've heard from the industry for a long time. It was way too expensive and with the high volume it just wasn't an option for (farmers) to get perishable items to the East Coast."
Vicki Hillhouse can be reached at vickihillhouse@wwub.com or 525-3300, ext. 284.
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ConfusedbyNews wrote on Feb 8, 2008 7:34 PM: